Thursday, September 06, 2012

In our social sciences class we watched a really good video on the Mesopotamian city state of Sumer. We learned about scribes writing in cuneiform as well as the Saga of Gilgamesh. Discovery Streaming has some great videos and we are grateful we have access to them!

In the junior high hallway we saw a lot of posters advertising for the people running for student government. I talked to a teacher in that hallway and asked if we could set up a town hall meeting where the candidates could answer questions for us.

In science lab Mr. Howerton had a really neat learning opportunity set up for us. First we made hand lenses using safety pins and water. The adhesiveness of the water allowed it to stick in the circle created by the wire on the safety pin and the water's cohesiveness kept it from falling apart. It actually magnified!

Then we got to look at some animal cells through the microscopes. They look very big when they are magnified. We managed to make it through the class without breaking a slide too.

Wednesday, September 05, 2012

I finally figured out what was wrong with my Discovery Streaming subscription. We celebrated by watching a video that showed a couple 'real world' examples of variables and expressions.

After the video we got back to work on variables and expressions. I am really hopeful that the students are catching on. I am looking forward to seeing how well they did tomorrow.

This afternoon we had a special visitor, Miss Winchester. She has spent the last three years in Niger (which is on the African continent.) She spent an hour talking to us about what life is like there. In social studies we have been studying about Mesopotamia, the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. While Niger is not real close, it was still good to have someone talk about an area that is not too dissimilar.

Here are a couple students putting on clothes that are typically worn by women and girls in Niger. The need for light, loose fitting cloth became apparent when Miss Winchester told us that the temperature fluctuates from as high as 140 degrees in the 'hot season' to a low of 90 degrees at night in the 'cool season'. That sure doesn't sound that cool to me!